Lessons in Australian Culture Shock

This article tells about culture shock issue mostly faced by international students especially if it is their first time study overseas. This article was published on Canberra Times, 2nd March 2008.

I T'S JUST over three years since the badly decomposed body of a 24-year-old Chinese student enrolled at the University of Canberra, Zhang Hong Jie, was found in a Belconnen unit. It was seven months since she had been strangled. It was a tragic story, still playing out in the Chinese legal system, which spoke of isolation and loneliness. It is tempting to draw conclusions from the story about the general experience of international students, who make up a significant proportion of Canberra's university students, but the truth is more mixed and generally much rosier. As one might expect, many international students are homesick when they arrive in Canberra. Most undergraduate students are only 17 or 18 years old and leaving home for the very first time and leaving it thousands of kilometres behind. ''Once they get over the initial euphoria of being here, they get homesick,'' the University of Canberra's international student advisor, Bari Hall, says.

''The next biggest problem would be some of the culture shock. We send them all kinds of information before they arrive, about Australian life, Canberra life, various things like speech differences, food differences all those things [but] they still experience culture shock.'' Culture shock is by no means universal, however. A third-year bachelor of commerce student Junde ''JD'' Li, of Singapore, found it easy to fit in. ''Australians are so laid back that I don't think it's much of a culture shock, and I don't think most students experience it,'' Li, who is also the Australian National University Students' Association's international student officer, says. Hall says that while culture shock was common, some students ''settle in here and lap it up''. About 10 per cent of the UC's 10,000 students are international students, coming from 80 different countries. A quarter of the international students are from China, followed by Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.

At ANU, international students make up almost 22 per cent of the university's student population, coming mainly from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Some student support at the UC has been lost. The university's Students' Association has been without an international student officer for more than a year, a casualty of the Howard government's abolition of compulsory student unionism. Sri Lankan student Samitha Ramanayake is in her third year of the ANU's bachelor of biotechnology course. He is a volunteer in the university's meet-and-greet program, picking international students up from the airport on arrival and helping them settle at the university. He found a marked difference between the initial reactions of Asian students, whom he says looked ''really gloomy'', and European and US students, who were ''really happy to be here''. Unlike Australian students, international students or their parents, usually pay full fees, so they are under considerable pressure to do well. An ANU bachelor of commerce, a popular choice for international students, costs about $65,000. Li says, ''They pay three times the cost of locals. And then there's flight tickets, accommodation, health cover.''

Many work the full 20 hours a week that their visas allow. Canberra's seemingly intractable accommodation crisis does nothing to help students feel settled. The ANU itself has a severe shortage of accommodation. On- campus accommodation is coveted, for convenience and because of the support it offers to first-year students. However, because final room allocations are not decided until just before classes start, some students arrive without knowing where they will be living, and many are forced to live off campus. Some even spend their first few days or weeks in a hotel or hostel. Ramanayake says, ''Most people choose the YHA because it's the cheapest. This time, I don't know why, so many people are not housed on campus. So many arrive without a place to stay.'' English is an obvious challenge for students from non-English speaking countries. Although Canberra's universities require a high standard of English, problems still arise. Li says some students' language limitations mean they have trouble understanding lectures and taking part in tutorials. Ramanayake says some students shock him with their poor command of spoken English.

''For Asian students, it's pretty good, [but some] European students have a problem, like French students this semester. Some people couldn't communicate I had to use pen and paper.'' A lack of confidence in English was one of the reasons why international students sought help from the ANU's student association. Rizvi says, ''Finding accommodation without much English is very tough.'' She encourages international students to bring in their rental agreements, while a full- time lawyer working at the association takes up claims. Although the ANU says international students perform no worse than other students academically, Rizvi says they are disproportionately represented among those who seek the Student Association's help in appealing poor grades. ''I think it's the English thing. People like JD help with the wording of the appeals and we also go along to hearings. A lot of time we're providing moral support.'' For all the difficulties faced by foreign students, Rizvi is full of praise for the ANU's support. ''I think the international education office is very supportive. It's a really big effort, 24 hours a day.'' The office is a drop-in centre and referral service for international students. It provides the meet-and- greet service, a mentoring program, training sessions, and academic help, among a host of
other services.

The office flew Li and Rizvi to Singapore and Malaysia for a three-day pre- departure briefing, allowing fledgling students to learn about Australia and make friends. Each of Canberra's campuses have a number of social and cultural organisations catering to students from particular countries. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Canberra, for example, has almost 600 students from the ANU and 63 students from the UC as members. The association organises everything from movie nights to paintball. Some students enjoy their experience in Canberra so much they fear reverse culture shock on returning home. Indonesian PhD student Gita Gayatri, who has spent four years at the ANU, spoke to the Sunday Canberra Times just before flying home. As a Muslim, she was warned to expect hostility in Australia, and while she experienced some verbal abuse off-campus she says she is sad about going home. ''It was a very precious experience for me. [The best thing] was the friendship and the opportunity of learning things from different cultures. In Indonesia I have to go back to a normal life with lots of compromise. I don't know whether I can cope.''